From one Carolina to the next ...

(Sorry for the delay on updates - I did not have access to the Internet the past few days!)

On Monday morning, Michi and I headed to the only scrapbook store I could find in Jacksonville, NC, called A Crafter's Dream. This small store had all of the scrapbooking staples and plenty of military-themed papers and embellishments, this being a huge Marine Corps town.


I was surprised to find that Bazzill had Marine Corps and Navy cardstock collection packs and just had to get the Marine one for when I scrapbook Rodney's military career.

We said good-bye to Michi around noon and then headed off West again, to visit my cousin, Marianne, and her family in Darlington, South Carolina.


NASCAR fans might know Darlington due to the speedway there. And it is clear that NASCAR plays a huge part in the community there.

For the past two years, Marianne, with the help of her husband John and daughters Alyssa and Amanda, owns and manages the Rock-N-Horse Ranch in Darlington.



While I was raised in the Orange County, Calif., suburbs, I love the rural side of life, too. Rodney was basically raised on a farm, so for him, our visit to the ranch was going back to his roots. I cannot say the same for our dogs.


While they have stayed in less sophisticated areas than these indoor horse stalls, Marble and Ripley were not pleased to have been "demoted" to the ranks of livestock after staying in the climate-controlled and pillowed indoors through the trip so far. But they were none the worse for wear when their "camping trip" was over and it was time to go a few days later...